Oddly Enough News – Yahoo! Philippines News

Fired for being "too hot," New Jersey woman claims

Tue, 22 May 2012 05:55:55 +0800

(Reuters) - A New Jersey woman said on Monday that she was dismissed from a temporary job at a New York lingerie warehouse because her male employers felt she was too busty and dressed too provocatively for the workplace. Wearing a form-fitting sequined black dress and black leather, sequin-studded boots, Lauren Odes, 29, said her Orthodox Jewish employers at Native Intimates told her that outfit and others like it were "too hot" for the warehouse. "We should not be judged by the size of our breasts or the shape of our body," Odes said. ...

Mountain lion wanders into California city center, is killed

Wed, 23 May 2012 10:25:50 +0800

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A mountain lion ventured into the center of a crowded Southern California city on Tuesday, and was shot and killed when authorities had trouble corralling the animal in the courtyard of a building, police said. It was not immediately clear how the 3-year-old mountain lion weighing about 75 pounds (34 kg) ended up in the middle of the beachside city of Santa Monica, which lies just west of Los Angeles. ...

South Africa protesters deface Zuma penis portrait

Wed, 23 May 2012 10:23:46 +0800

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Two men vandalized a portrait of South African President Jacob Zuma with his genitals exposed on Tuesday, intensifying a heated debate about the picture that has enraged the ruling African National Congress. Television footage showed a white middle-aged man in a suit walking up to the portrait at a Johannesburg gallery and painting a red cross on president's face and private parts. A younger black man then smeared black paint over the picture while the first man was being taken into custody by security guards. ...

Are sweaty brokers more ethical?

Tue, 22 May 2012 22:44:05 +0800

LONDON (Reuters) - If you want to know how ethical your broker is, give them a moral dilemma and see how much they sweat before deciding what to do. It's quite a jump from the laboratory to real-world decisions about asset management but British researchers have found that gut feeling can override rational thought when people are faced with financial offers that look unfair. Even when we could benefit, a physical response like sweating can make people reject a financial proposition they consider to be unjust. The key is how tuned in they are to their own bodies. ...

Are sweaty brokers more ethical?

Tue, 22 May 2012 07:02:53 +0800

Cloak and dagger world of spies exposed in NYC show

Mon, 21 May 2012 20:18:12 +0800

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The mysterious cloak and dagger world of international espionage and its real-life heros and villains are exposed in a new exhibition, the first to be sanctioned by U.S. intelligence agencies. "Spy, the Secret World of Espionage," which opens at the Discovery Times Square on Friday, includes hundreds of artifacts, some from the vaults of the CIA and FBI and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). ...

Ukraine's topless fighters plot to storm the Euros

Mon, 21 May 2012 20:03:48 +0800

KIEV (Reuters) - Anna darts gleefully around the two sparsely-furnished rooms situated through an archway off a steep street that climbs up from Kiev's Independence Square. She is a general showing off her new headquarters. "This is going to be our training room for our Euro strikes," she says. "That's for the girls to get fit on for when they scrap with the police or have to run away from them," she says, pointing to a set of wall-bars and an overhead muscle-tone pulley-bar by the front door. ...

Presidential penis portrait riles S.Africa's ANC

Fri, 18 May 2012 21:16:19 +0800

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling ANC threatened to take legal action against a Johannesburg gallery for displaying art which lampoons President Jacob Zuma and accuses the party of corruption. The African National Congress wants the Goodman Gallery to remove a painting of Zuma called "The Spear", which depicts the president with his genitals exposed, and another work that has a "For Sale" sign superimposed over the party logo. The picture of Zuma is a facsimile of a famous poster of communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. ...

Japan train with "rice balls" to sharpen soccer skills

Mon, 21 May 2012 13:12:17 +0800

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan have come up with a novel way of preparing themselves for this year's London Olympic men's soccer tournament - training with odd-bouncing triangular 'rice balls.' The balls, shaped like the traditional Japanese 'onigiri' rice ball wrapped in seaweed, were fired at goalkeepers during training at the weekend, local media reported on Monday. "It was good practice," goalkeeper Takuya Masuda told the Nikkan Sports newspaper after a dizzying session trying to stop the oversized lunch snacks. "Hopefully we can apply it in matches. ...

Italy "dog and cat tax" muzzled after uproar

Sat, 19 May 2012 03:23:06 +0800

ROME (Reuters) - A proposal to levy a tax on cats and dogs that stunned Italy on Friday turned out to be all bark and no bite after a wave of popular anger saw it withdrawn on the same day it was made public. Italy was abuzz for hours after local media reported that a parliamentary commission had proposed a tax on domestic "animals of affection" to raise revenue for debt-strapped cities and towns. ...

Cloak and dagger world of spies exposed in NYC show

Sat, 19 May 2012 01:23:53 +0800

'Psychic' pig to make Euro tips

Fri, 18 May 2012 19:15:55 +0800

KIEV (Reuters) - A psychic pig is set to take over where Paul the Octopus left off at the 2010 World Cup by predicting the results of matches at the European championships in Ukraine and Poland. Kiev's city government said on Friday it would wheel out the porky tipster to give daily forecasts once the tournament kicks off next month. "A unique oracle hog, a real Ukrainian pig and a psychic which knows the mysteries of football," a statement said. "Every day at 16.00 it will predict the result of the upcoming match. ...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Breyer robbed again

Fri, 18 May 2012 04:46:58 +0800

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who was robbed in February at his Caribbean vacation home by a man armed with a machete, recently was the victim of a burglary at his residence in Washington, a court spokeswoman said on Thursday. Spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said no one was home at the time of the burglary, which was discovered May 4 by a housekeeper. The Washington, D.C., police were investigating, she said. Breyer and his wife, Joanna, have a townhouse in Washington's upscale Georgetown neighborhood, according to the Los Angeles Times. ...

Canada museum kills masturbation video after outcry

Fri, 18 May 2012 00:20:16 +0800

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's federal science museum has removed an animated video showing youth masturbating from an upcoming sex exhibit following a public outcry, a museum spokesman said. The Canada Science and Technology Museum will open the "Sex: A Tell-all Exhibition" on Thursday as planned despite strong criticism from Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore, who has called it an insult to taxpayers. ...

Fugitive penguin 337 spotted alive in Tokyo Bay

Thu, 17 May 2012 10:14:00 +0800

TOKYO (Reuters) - After Penguin Number 337 made a daring bid for freedom from a Tokyo aquarium and vanished into the waters of Tokyo Bay two months ago, many feared the worst for the adventurous feathered fugitive. But the one-year-old Humboldt penguin has now popped up on video footage in a different part of the bay, frolicking in the water and apparently healthy. The penguin, still too young to determine whether it is male or female and thus known only by a number, scaled a rock wall four meters (13 ft) high and squeezed through a barbed wire fence to escape its harborside aquarium in March. ...

Canada museum kills masturbation video after outcry

Thu, 17 May 2012 07:05:17 +0800

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's federal science museum has removed an animated video showing youth masturbating from an upcoming sex exhibit following a public outcry, a museum spokesman said on Wednesday. The Canada Science and Technology Museum will open the "Sex: A Tell-all Exhibition" on Thursday as planned despite strong criticism from Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore, who has called it an insult to taxpayers. ...

Sniffer dog nabs smuggler hiding heroin in rectum

Thu, 17 May 2012 03:37:20 +0800

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A man who tried to smuggle heroin into the United States concealed in his rectum was caught by U.S. officials - with the help of a drug-sniffer dog named Malone - as he walked across the border from Mexico. Paulo Alfredo Macias, 35, was being held in the El Paso County Jail without bond after being caught on Monday at the Paso Del Norte pedestrian crossing with nearly 5 ounces of heroin, officials said. ...

Paris exotic dancers strike, say wages "miserable"

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:39:24 +0800

* Dancers say are asked to work 24 days per month * Cabaret says takes wellbeing of dancers seriously PARIS (Reuters) - Topless dancers at the renowned Crazy Horse night club in Paris have gone on strike, saying they are not being paid enough to take the shirts off their backs. The Crazy Horse, one of the most popular establishments of its kind in the world, said on Wednesday it was forced to cancel performances on Tuesday and again on Wednesday for the first time since the cabaret was created in 1951. ...

Man bitten by rattlesnake at Washington state Walmart

Tue, 15 May 2012 09:49:22 +0800

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - When Mica Craig reached down to brush what he thought was a stick off some mulch in the garden section of a Washington state Walmart, it turned around and sank its fangs into his hand. The Friday encounter with a rattlesnake sent Craig, 47, to the hospital, where he said he remained in excruciating pain and may lose feeling in two fingers. Wal-Mart Stores Inc has apologized. "I reached down to grab the stick to move it out of the way, and the snake stretched out, turned around and got its fangs in my right hand," he said. ...

Shock-seekers snap up new Aussie art dare

Mon, 14 May 2012 09:37:45 +0800

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Smelling excrement may not be everyone's idea of fun, but for those who like to push the boundaries, Australia's most controversial new museum may be just what they are looking for. Dubbed "the subversive adult Disneyland", the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is located in Tasmania and features around 400 works of art from Egyptian mummies to Young British Artists including Chris Ofili and Jenny Saville. But the most talked-about piece is the Cloaca Professional, labeled the "poo-machine. ...

Topless Ukraine activist grabs Euro soccer cup

Sun, 13 May 2012 23:24:05 +0800

KIEV (Reuters) - A Ukrainian women's rights activist stripped to the waist and seized the Euro-2012 soccer trophy while it was on public display in Kiev on Saturday in a protest against the forthcoming month-long championship. The young woman, 23-year-old Yulia Kovpachik, is a member of the Kiev-based Femen women's rights group which believes the Euro-2012 soccer tournament being played in Ukraine next month will encourage sex tourism. ...

"Subversive" newspaper crossword stirs Venezuela

Sat, 12 May 2012 01:03:44 +0800

CARACAS (Reuters) - A veteran Venezuelan crossword-writer has been accused of hiding a coded message to assassinate President Hugo Chavez's brother in the latest surreal twist to election year politics in the South American nation. Neptali Segovia was interviewed by intelligence agents, his newspaper said on Friday, after a state TV pundit said he had disguised a message to gun down Chavez's brother, Adan, in the answers to various clues in a crossword this week. ...

Stripper fired from newspaper alleges discrimination

Fri, 11 May 2012 23:55:07 +0800

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - A newspaper reporter who was fired after another publication reported that she worked part-time as a stripper says she has filed a complaint against her former employer with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging sex discrimination. Sarah Tressler, 30, was working as a society and general assignment reporter for the Houston Chronicle and was writing an anonymous blog entitled "Diary of an Angry Stripper" when the weekly Houston Press revealed her part-time profession in an article entitled "Society Writer by Day, Stripper by Night. ...

Afterlife comes at a discount for diehard Benfica fans

Fri, 11 May 2012 22:29:52 +0800

LISBON (Reuters) - Diehard fans of Portugal's Premier League soccer club Benfica can now rest in peace knowing they can be buried at a discount thanks to a deal signed between the club and the country's largest undertakers agency. In addition to a 12.5 percent rebate, the ultimate advantages for card-carrying Benfica fans also include having the club's anthem performed during the funeral ceremony, having the club's official logo chiseled on coffins or urns, as well as having the Benfica flag laid over the receptacle. ...

Gambling, drinking monks raise hell in South Korea

Fri, 11 May 2012 20:33:50 +0800

SEOUL (Reuters) - Six leaders from South Korea's biggest Buddhist order have quit after secret video footage showed some supposedly serene monks raising hell, playing high-stakes poker, drinking and smoking. The scandal erupted just days before Koreans observe a national holiday to celebrate the birth of Buddha, the holiest day of the religion's calendar. The head of the Jogye order, which has some 10 million followers, or about a fifth of the population, made a public apology on Friday, vowing "self-repentance". ...